What do you think?
The Genesis of Ethics: How the Tormented Family of Genesis Leads Us to Moral Development
Burton L. Visotzky, one of America's most respected scholars of religion, guides readers through a close reading of the narratives of the Book of Genesis, exposing their brutal power and revealing how their moral dilemmas apply to ethical issues we face in our lives today.
Rabbi Visotzky has led highly regarded seminars, attended by novelists, poets, editors, filmmakers and critics, Fortune 500 CEOs, bankers, and attorneys. He also was a major participant in Bill Moyers's PBS Genesis series. His reading of Genesis opens the door to moral development for all readers--Christians, Jews, Muslims, and secularists.
As Burton Visotzky says, the Book of Genesis seems to be, at least on first reading, "an ugly little soap opera about a dysfunctional family . . . a story about rape, incest, murder, deception, brute force, sex, and blood lust. But these stories reveal much about human dilemmas and ethical problems that mirror our own lives. By delving into the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Esau and holding up these characters of Scripture to the light of critical inquiry, Burton Visotzky reveals much that is fresh and useful about ethics and morality.
"He is a rabbi who is earthy, playful, and full of insight, who refuses to draw a veil over the dark side of the Bible or of our own contemporary experience. "
--Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization
"[Visotzky] has a wonderfully earthy, human touch to his commentary, a perspective that can be especially refreshing for Christians who have seen the 'Old Testament' sanitized or ignored by their own tradition."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Thrilling original insights . . . a new way to see and feel these old, old sentences. "
--The New York Times Magazine
"Visotzky delights in turning the gem of each story so that its facets, especially the darkest ones, gleam out at us. . . . The Genesis of Ethics is a unique contribution to Bible discussion. . . . One can only applaud and thank him. "
--Naomi Rosen, Congress Monthly
Rabbi Visotzky has led highly regarded seminars, attended by novelists, poets, editors, filmmakers and critics, Fortune 500 CEOs, bankers, and attorneys. He also was a major participant in Bill Moyers's PBS Genesis series. His reading of Genesis opens the door to moral development for all readers--Christians, Jews, Muslims, and secularists.
As Burton Visotzky says, the Book of Genesis seems to be, at least on first reading, "an ugly little soap opera about a dysfunctional family . . . a story about rape, incest, murder, deception, brute force, sex, and blood lust. But these stories reveal much about human dilemmas and ethical problems that mirror our own lives. By delving into the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Esau and holding up these characters of Scripture to the light of critical inquiry, Burton Visotzky reveals much that is fresh and useful about ethics and morality.
"He is a rabbi who is earthy, playful, and full of insight, who refuses to draw a veil over the dark side of the Bible or of our own contemporary experience. "
--Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization
"[Visotzky] has a wonderfully earthy, human touch to his commentary, a perspective that can be especially refreshing for Christians who have seen the 'Old Testament' sanitized or ignored by their own tradition."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Thrilling original insights . . . a new way to see and feel these old, old sentences. "
--The New York Times Magazine
"Visotzky delights in turning the gem of each story so that its facets, especially the darkest ones, gleam out at us. . . . The Genesis of Ethics is a unique contribution to Bible discussion. . . . One can only applaud and thank him. "
--Naomi Rosen, Congress Monthly
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 1996
About the author
Burton L. Visotzky
23 books18 followersRABBI BURTON L. VISOTZKY serves as Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he joined the faculty upon his ordination as rabbi in 1977. Visotzky was a dean of the Graduate School and founding Rabbi of the egalitarian worship service of the Seminary Synagogue. He now serves as the Louis Stein Director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at JTS, charged with programs on public policy. Visotzky also directs the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at JTS.
Prof. Visotzky has been visiting faculty at Oxford; Cambridge; and Princeton Universities; the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow; and served as the Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (where he met Pope Benedict in 2007). He recently served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he met Pope Francis.
Prof. Visotzky's writing is published in America, Europe, and Israel. He is the author of ten books and over one-hundred-twenty articles and reviews. His eleventh book, APHRODITE AND THE RABBIS: How the Jews adapted Roman Culture to create Judaism as we know it, will be published in September, 2016.
Rabbi Visotzky participates in interreligious engagement internationally, in capitals as diverse as Washington; Warsaw; Rome; Cairo; Doha, Qatar; Madrid; Muskat, Oman and most recently Marrakech, Morocco. He was the winner of the 2012 Goldziher Prize, awarded biennially by Merrimack College for work in Jewish-Muslim relations. Visotzky is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor Visotzky is active as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence throughout North America, Europe, and Israel. He has been featured on radio, television, and in print. Rabbi Burt Visotzky has been named to "The Forward 50" and repeatedly to the Newsweek/Daily Beast list of "The 50 Most Influential Jews in America."
Prof. Visotzky has been visiting faculty at Oxford; Cambridge; and Princeton Universities; the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow; and served as the Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (where he met Pope Benedict in 2007). He recently served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he met Pope Francis.
Prof. Visotzky's writing is published in America, Europe, and Israel. He is the author of ten books and over one-hundred-twenty articles and reviews. His eleventh book, APHRODITE AND THE RABBIS: How the Jews adapted Roman Culture to create Judaism as we know it, will be published in September, 2016.
Rabbi Visotzky participates in interreligious engagement internationally, in capitals as diverse as Washington; Warsaw; Rome; Cairo; Doha, Qatar; Madrid; Muskat, Oman and most recently Marrakech, Morocco. He was the winner of the 2012 Goldziher Prize, awarded biennially by Merrimack College for work in Jewish-Muslim relations. Visotzky is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor Visotzky is active as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence throughout North America, Europe, and Israel. He has been featured on radio, television, and in print. Rabbi Burt Visotzky has been named to "The Forward 50" and repeatedly to the Newsweek/Daily Beast list of "The 50 Most Influential Jews in America."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 1, 2013
Excellent exploration of the stories in Genesis. Rather than shying away from the disastrous human relationships they describe or pretending that they aren't ribald, ugly, or challenging, Rabbi Visotzky sees in them an opportunity to provoke modern readers to a complex form of moral reasoning. Whose point of view is represented in the telling of each story? What was left out? What are the power dynamics? What did the characters feel at different stages of their lives, and moreover how do we, today, read the stories differently at different stages of our lives? Rabbi Visotzky prefers to focus on the story as narrative (peshat), rather than isolating traditional themes or messages (derash), and in so doing, he enables new readings. He has what seems to be a humanist opinion of the sanctity of the Biblical text: moral education is not inherent in the text itself, but occurs through the process of studying and discussing it.
January 12, 2012
Very good for a solid introduction to the family dynamics of Genesis. Not your typical dry, scholarly analysis, but quite personal and very readable. Uses a wide variety of modern and traditional sources to examine the ethics of Abraham and his family, both within their context and in that of modern readers/believers. Raises worthy questions and demonstrates a strong familiarity with the material. Recommended for people who want to add variety to the numerous Christian or comparative religion works on the book of Genesis.
January 27, 2008
This is a book that analyzes the "evolution" of ethics as per the biblical book of Genesis. It explores the contexts of the Biblical stories and discusses the lessons taught by the Jewish and Christian traditions on morals and values and looks at how the actions of the characters would be considered wrong by today's ethical standards.
It teaches us that situational ethics are different depending on the context, personality and culture.
It teaches us that situational ethics are different depending on the context, personality and culture.
April 6, 2007
A decidely non-orthodox reading of Genisis
August 28, 2019
“I fear what Abraham May have learned is that when one is powerless, one must either submit or deceive”.
I can count numerous times when people have suggested to start reading the Bible anywhere but from the beginning. I can count no times people suggest that about any other book. Genesis is obviously a difficult first course to digest, let alone to consider as a religious code of conduct. However, Visotzky describes what is to be read between the lines uncovering the lessons being taught in a fantastic fashion. There is a bit of repetition and plenty of assumption, but Burton used these as tools to fill in the gaps of the puzzle that is Genesis and it paints a very striking picture of the ethical cause and response echoing throughout the Biblical soap opera.
I can count numerous times when people have suggested to start reading the Bible anywhere but from the beginning. I can count no times people suggest that about any other book. Genesis is obviously a difficult first course to digest, let alone to consider as a religious code of conduct. However, Visotzky describes what is to be read between the lines uncovering the lessons being taught in a fantastic fashion. There is a bit of repetition and plenty of assumption, but Burton used these as tools to fill in the gaps of the puzzle that is Genesis and it paints a very striking picture of the ethical cause and response echoing throughout the Biblical soap opera.
April 20, 2026
A bit of a rambling fireside chat with the author about all the thoughts that Bereshit provokes in his brain. As a man writing about inter-gender issues, he can come a bit close to "as a woman, do we think Sarah felt ..." but he manages to skirt that line carefully without being overly confident or coming to egregious conclusions. He likes to mention chats with a friend of his, a WOMAN friend, that explains why he has this or that question.
Anyway, this is a good read. It left me realising, though, that his type of belief requires genuinely believing these people existed, as people, and that God exists and existed, as represented in these stories. I would prefer a bit more meta-textual analyses that also recognise the literally human authors of the words, and the times in which they put those words to paper.
But, this is a wonderfully entertaining and illuminating book that has helped me on my journey through my Jewish heritage. Visotzky is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine. I can see why my father has 4 of his books on his shelf. And I wish he had more writings like this about various other texts.
Anyway, this is a good read. It left me realising, though, that his type of belief requires genuinely believing these people existed, as people, and that God exists and existed, as represented in these stories. I would prefer a bit more meta-textual analyses that also recognise the literally human authors of the words, and the times in which they put those words to paper.
But, this is a wonderfully entertaining and illuminating book that has helped me on my journey through my Jewish heritage. Visotzky is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine. I can see why my father has 4 of his books on his shelf. And I wish he had more writings like this about various other texts.
June 25, 2019
Interesting read about the ethical dilemmas presented in part of the book of Genesis. Most powerful part for me was the notion that all of us are influenced by our backgrounds and individual experiences, but the final line---"The study of Scripture, like moral development itself, is an unending journey"--really brings the message home. Our morals, our view, our decisions are impacted by our experiences day to day and our histories!
April 16, 2021
This is my second time around with this one, my first reading during my year-long Clinical Pastoral Education residency at a Level 1 trauma hospital a good 15 years ago (FIFTEEN?!?!). It holds up well.
After the first chapter that sets the stage for how the book essentially came to be, Visotzky brings the read right into the midst of Genesis with the Abraham family saga underway. His curiosity and incessant questions beg the reader to consider how this family’s saga is so much more than meets the eye. Abraham’s family is our family - full of questionable dysfunction, learning how to be beloved, and curious about their relationship with “their maker.”
Perhaps my favorite take is God’s role in the midst of it all. Visotzky ensures the reader that no question is too big or small to consider with regard to the creator’s activity (or lack thereof).
A fun read that will alter your experience of Genesis - and that’s a good thing.
After the first chapter that sets the stage for how the book essentially came to be, Visotzky brings the read right into the midst of Genesis with the Abraham family saga underway. His curiosity and incessant questions beg the reader to consider how this family’s saga is so much more than meets the eye. Abraham’s family is our family - full of questionable dysfunction, learning how to be beloved, and curious about their relationship with “their maker.”
Perhaps my favorite take is God’s role in the midst of it all. Visotzky ensures the reader that no question is too big or small to consider with regard to the creator’s activity (or lack thereof).
A fun read that will alter your experience of Genesis - and that’s a good thing.
November 16, 2020
I am all for new perspectives on biblical text. Although R. Visotzky does this, the style is too flippant and irreverent.
May 23, 2015
I've always been conflicted over how to reconcile the God(s) of the Pentateuch, priests, and prophets with the (seemingly much different, gentler) God(s) of Psalms, Proverbs, and Jesus. I've been particularly perplexed by the capricious God of Genesis since I was a child. To be blunt, the God of Genesis does not seem rational by human-based psychological measures - nor against later accounts of God in the Old and New Testaments. The beneficiaries of the celebrated patriarchal covenants at the base of the West's and Near East's family of Abrahimic religions are not awarded on the merits of any virtue. The cosmic grants they received are not conditional on responsible behavior going forward. This is the origin of discord I've experienced with Christianity since learning the basics of critical thinking and which still, to a not inconsiderable extent, creates problems for my ever-developing set of beliefs.
I've found a lot of answers in history, cultural anthropology, and the other standard features of a quality education. I feel like I'm able to place biblical stories in the cultural, literary, scientific, and rhetorical contexts they belong. In doing so, I've addressed some of the most nagging concerns about that "irrationality" of the Old Testament God.
But even as I've found a way to contextualize and synthesize a working whole, I understand that I am no closer to reconciling myself with the hundreds of millions of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faithful who live in this world with me. To most, the ideas of biblical inerrancy and the impossible mission of applying (often self-conflicting) Bronze and Iron Age instructions (directed to small, homogenous, illiterate, pre-industrial populations) to a modern, large, heterogenous, technological, educated and rich world are unimpeachably sacrosanct. It's frustrating in the extreme to practice humanity in a world that squanders untold fortunes and human lives in denial of itself.
Each time I have been blessed with the discovery of answers, kindred spirits, and institutions who are "going at it the right way" my spirit is rewarded with a surge of energy and my worldview expands as a consequence. I'm fortunate to belong to a church that engages in a lot of investigation and exegesis. I am fortunate to find others of similar disposition nearly everywhere I go. It makes the daily gauntlet of living in such a mean world less alienating. So it was with enthusiasm that I read The Genesis of Ethics - a book one of my coworkers recommended.
Rabbi Visotzky confronts the same issues I have with the Abrihimic first family of Genesis: namely the arbitrarily no-strings-attached position into which God appears to enter into the covenant. Someone recently said to me that she assumed Abraham and Sarah were good people - otherwise, well... The truth is that - by recent human standards of morality, dating back to at least medieval times (but definitely the Enlightenment) - they're terrible people. And God, both by associations and the motives given by the narrator of Genesis, isn't exactly glorified under the lamp of close moral scrutiny, here, either. But it isn't blasphemy to work through this cognitive dissonance. The Rabbi Visotsky can defend this kind of exegesis exercise as part of a millennias-old midrash tradition. And I'm thrilled the tradition exists and is alive today.
However, a couple of things sabotaged the book for me. Just as I've confessed visceral dislike for the Genesis-people-as-dudes, I'm not sure I like Visotsky so much. He strikes me as a product of the late-boomer/proto-gen-x, Manhattanite, yuppie crowd, awash in self-satisfied 80's "me generation" egotism and materialism. He's also gross. When he talks about Sarah and Abraham's likely frosty sex life, he mentions the moistness of Sarah's vagina and the flaccidness of Abraham's penis. This is actually a typical Visotsky observation. I was more turned off by it than, presumably, Abraham himself was. A lesser complaint: Visotsky literally sexual-psychoanalyzes the biggest sacred cows of Abrahimic faith, exposing himself to charges of the most abject blasphemy imaginable but never questions the report that Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac exceeded contemporary lifespans by 300-400%? Dude.
Kudos to Visotsky though for tackling the tough subjects and calling rape what it is. As we all know, it comes up regularly in Genesis. Kudos to writing a challenging book that doesn't answer those tough questions but illustrates the value of the process of questioning itself as a disciplinary method. Should probably give it four stars, but see preceding paragraph: Gross conjecture on patriarchal/matriarchal nether regions.
I've found a lot of answers in history, cultural anthropology, and the other standard features of a quality education. I feel like I'm able to place biblical stories in the cultural, literary, scientific, and rhetorical contexts they belong. In doing so, I've addressed some of the most nagging concerns about that "irrationality" of the Old Testament God.
But even as I've found a way to contextualize and synthesize a working whole, I understand that I am no closer to reconciling myself with the hundreds of millions of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faithful who live in this world with me. To most, the ideas of biblical inerrancy and the impossible mission of applying (often self-conflicting) Bronze and Iron Age instructions (directed to small, homogenous, illiterate, pre-industrial populations) to a modern, large, heterogenous, technological, educated and rich world are unimpeachably sacrosanct. It's frustrating in the extreme to practice humanity in a world that squanders untold fortunes and human lives in denial of itself.
Each time I have been blessed with the discovery of answers, kindred spirits, and institutions who are "going at it the right way" my spirit is rewarded with a surge of energy and my worldview expands as a consequence. I'm fortunate to belong to a church that engages in a lot of investigation and exegesis. I am fortunate to find others of similar disposition nearly everywhere I go. It makes the daily gauntlet of living in such a mean world less alienating. So it was with enthusiasm that I read The Genesis of Ethics - a book one of my coworkers recommended.
Rabbi Visotzky confronts the same issues I have with the Abrihimic first family of Genesis: namely the arbitrarily no-strings-attached position into which God appears to enter into the covenant. Someone recently said to me that she assumed Abraham and Sarah were good people - otherwise, well... The truth is that - by recent human standards of morality, dating back to at least medieval times (but definitely the Enlightenment) - they're terrible people. And God, both by associations and the motives given by the narrator of Genesis, isn't exactly glorified under the lamp of close moral scrutiny, here, either. But it isn't blasphemy to work through this cognitive dissonance. The Rabbi Visotsky can defend this kind of exegesis exercise as part of a millennias-old midrash tradition. And I'm thrilled the tradition exists and is alive today.
However, a couple of things sabotaged the book for me. Just as I've confessed visceral dislike for the Genesis-people-as-dudes, I'm not sure I like Visotsky so much. He strikes me as a product of the late-boomer/proto-gen-x, Manhattanite, yuppie crowd, awash in self-satisfied 80's "me generation" egotism and materialism. He's also gross. When he talks about Sarah and Abraham's likely frosty sex life, he mentions the moistness of Sarah's vagina and the flaccidness of Abraham's penis. This is actually a typical Visotsky observation. I was more turned off by it than, presumably, Abraham himself was. A lesser complaint: Visotsky literally sexual-psychoanalyzes the biggest sacred cows of Abrahimic faith, exposing himself to charges of the most abject blasphemy imaginable but never questions the report that Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac exceeded contemporary lifespans by 300-400%? Dude.
Kudos to Visotsky though for tackling the tough subjects and calling rape what it is. As we all know, it comes up regularly in Genesis. Kudos to writing a challenging book that doesn't answer those tough questions but illustrates the value of the process of questioning itself as a disciplinary method. Should probably give it four stars, but see preceding paragraph: Gross conjecture on patriarchal/matriarchal nether regions.
July 2, 2016
I enjoyed reading this and it made me see some of these stories in differing lights. I'm giving it three stars because 1) I don't want to be seen as recommending this (definitely not an "orthodox" reading); and 2) he is a bit more cavalier with God and the text than thoughtful at times (But I don't consider 3 stars to be a "bad rating"). Recommended to people who enjoy OT narrative and won't be offended easily.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews